Golden Bay Community board meeting
Public forum
Landscape priority areas. Don Mead from the Friends of Golden Bay spoke about landscape priority areas and an agreement between TDC and the combined Friends of Nelson Haven Tasman Bay. Council agreed last year to draw up draft plan amendments to identify and protect landscape values when considering coastal development.
“Last Wednesday there was a feisty meeting between the Friends of Nelson Haven and TDC staff at which TDC agreed that they had broken their legal agreement with the combined friends groups. Council knew a month after signing the agreement that they wouldn’t be able to do the work,” said Mr Mead.
Board chair Joe Bell said: “This is important because, in the absence of proper rules and policies, applications cannot be properly considered. There was one just last week.”
Councillor Stuart Borlase said that the work on the draft amendment stopped because of a staff health issue. “The planning department has got three years’ work - all of which is priority one.”
Rototai food stall. Elizabeth Warren spoke about the produce stall in Rototai Road.
“Holidaymakers used it a lot,” she said. “Every time I went past there was a car parked outside. The signs and flags were distracting too. It was quite a problem for me and the police told me I would be responsible if I hit somebody even though they were parking illegally. Also I have a friend who has a certified Biogro farm and I know how long it took to get and keep that status. It appears to be like false advertising for the stall to say it sells organic produce.”
Ms Warren said that the stallholders had not applied for resource consent until she made a complaint to council.
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“The Friends of Rototai Road talk about maintaining the country aspect of Rototai,” she said. “Is there a resource consent for it?”
NgAng from the Friends of Rototai Road explained that the produce stall’s consent is “in the process of going through. I didn’t know that a consent was required,” he said. NgAng explained that in the first few weeks of the stall’s operation, people were curious and there was some parking on the footpath.
“Now they’ve learned that there’s allocated and marked parking bays in the last two weeks it’s been a non-issue. The stall is staffed between 10am and 7pm and we direct cars to the right places to park.”
“We’re thinking of calling the stall ‘Almost, Just About, Nearly Organic.’”
NgAng finished by saying that since the development of the mural, the art garden and the stall he had noticed that traffic in the area was moving more slowly.
Student and family support worker. Board member Leigh Gamby spoke about the Golden Bay Community Workers’ student and family support worker.
“With support from Tom Sturgess and the community the position was created, and Simon Dadley Moore developed some wonderful programmes that ran in all the Bay’s schools.” Said Mr Gamby. “Celia Lashlie peer-reviewed it and it was very highly rated. Now the funding has run out, the Community Workers board has been trying valiantly to get the programme accepted by various ministries. The programmes still exist but they’re no longer being delivered. We have glowing testimonials from parents around the Bay and years later kids remember the programmes.”
Mr Bell wondered whether there was anything the board could do to help, perhaps by writing to the appropriate members of parliament and the Minister regretting the passing of the programme.
“These are community programmes,” said board member Carolyn McLellan. “Kids didn’t fail in later life because of the types of early intervention put in place by the programmes.”
Footpaths, parking, speed. As part of their liaison roles, Mr Gamby and board member Karen Brookes have been to see Sergeant Clarence of the Takaka Police.
“We discussed the bikes on footpaths issue,” said Mr Gamby. “Sergeant Clarence recognises that the problem is large and ever-present. Basically they’re doing what they can but it comes down to education.”
Mr Gamby said that the police were more concerned about the dangers posed by large numbers of people in the vicinity of the Mussel Inn.
“Their consent is for something like 50 people. Parking becomes dangerous. There are even people camping on the roadsides and wandering around in the dark. The police are afraid that it’s only a matter of time before an accident happens,” said Mr Gamby.
Local resident Martine Bouillir spoke about ways to reduce the speed of traffic in Takaka’s CBD where the narrowness of the carriageway, the parking on both sides of the road and the lack of visibility make it hazardous for young pedestrians.
“I have a vision of a pedestrian precinct where the street becomes an extension of the Village Green,” she said.
Mr Bell spoke of the length of time the board had been attempting to address the issue and mentioned a plan drawn up by architect James Baird in 1995. Mr Bell also thanked everyone for their contributions to Public Forum.
“We’ll do our best to take those matters forward,” he said.
TDC website. The board heard from Tama Easton, council’s newly appointed webmaster.
“The current website is not meeting customer requirements so we’re going to scrap it and build a new one from the ground up,” said Mr Easton. “I have been going around the district hearing what staff think and talking to community boards and associations. I welcome all suggestions.”
Mr Easton said that the website should be a communication tool, a transaction centre, and an information gateway.
Mr Gamby asked how people with dialup or very slow broadband internet access would find the new website.
“We’re going to have a ‘light’ version without flash images. It will be very stripped down so that it’s accessible for dialup and mobile users.”
Mrs McLellan said that the information gateway was the website’s most important function. “People get really frustrated finding minutes and agendas. It needs to be really straightforward and they need to be up in a timely fashion,” she said.
“We’ll be looking at streamlining the process. There will be more staff in-house and a smoother communication flow,” said Mr Easton.
Mr Bell said: “We look up agendas minutes and reports, especially those that are tabled at meetings. If they’re on the agenda they should be part of the minutes process and therefore be accessible on the website. It would be good if we could also access the LTCCP and the Annual Plan with a search function.”
Mr Easton said that the current TDC website attracts about 15,000 viewers a month, many from England who are searching the district’s cemetery records.
Public toilet facilities. The board spent some time discussing the provision of toilets at popular visitor destinations like Wainui Falls and Wharariki.
Since it is inseparable from the wider issue of freedom camping, which is exercising TDC staff minds at the moment, the board decided to have a workshop with the key staff member, regulatory manager Jean Hodson. Accordingly they will invite her to an upcoming meeting, possibly as part of a visit in which Ms Hodson will be consulted on another ongoing issues concerning the board, such as vehicles on beaches.
Neil Wilson
